March 19, 2010, - 7:15 pm

The Freedom Alliance’s Weak, Empty “Response”; More to Come on This Fraud

By Debbie Schlussel

As you know, yesterday I posted an extensive expose on the fraud that is the Freedom Alliance and the associated Freedom Concerts pimped by Sean Hannity on hard-working Americans who pay their money, thinking they are helping severely wounded troops and funding college scholarships for the children of wounded soldiers. As I predicted, Freedom Alliance finally “responded” with a non-response that was more lies and obfuscation.  You only need to look at their tax forms, which I posted in my expose, to know what’s going on without the filter of their lens.

freedomconcerthannity
The Sham Continues & the Shallow Wagons Circle

The liars and frauds at Freedom Alliance want to keep the gravy train going for them and their cronies. So, instead of actually refuting a single fact, they make claims without any hard evidence . . . because they don’t have any. None of the circle-the-wagons, fraudulent “conservatives” defending this group have dared post the tax forms because they tell the unvarnished truth.  One of the “prominent bloggers” who posted the phony response is Erick Erickson, a nut from Kentucky, who supports the equally nutty, pro-Iran, anti-American, anti-Gitmo Rand Paul, and who defended Emily Zanotti, the lunatic who has been stalking me for four years, who praised Muslim death, rape, and torture threats against me and my family, and who recently lost a scurrilous, unhinged attempt to threaten my free speech rights by trying to challenge my law license (which she did with the participation of a number of the bloggers now defending Freedom Alliance).  And I love how because the wasteful, lying charity claims in its response that Vannity paid for all his travel (he, in fact, paid for none of it and it was in fancy private planes, which I’ll tell you about in the coming days), that’s now “fact.”  Yup, repeating CYA press releases by perpetrators is now deemed an “exhaustive investigation.”

Here is my initial response to Freedom Alliance’s extremely weak PR attempt at covering its hide  (I will be posting more, next week, as I’ve discovered even more sleaze on the group’s part):

In fact, the Freedom Alliance “response” doesn’t answer any of the questions I raised and goes on to lie more. They don’t address why they gave a triple amputee only $200—and in fact there are many of these examples provided in their tax return addendum, but I only cited a few for brevity’s sake. They also lie and claim that they gave a lot more money to charity b/c they categorize it as “program expenses.” But I’m sorry—calling over $3 million in consulting fees, printing, and postage “program expenses” doesn’t change the fact that it still went to their cronies, not to a fund and not the soldiers who only got on average less than $900 apiece. It also doesn’t change the fact that out of the money spent (I didn’t count the money they claim they raised for their scholarship fund in my percentages or the figures would have been even more outrageous against Freedom Alliance), the vast majority of spending goes to those kinds of expenses.

Also, the “scholarship fund” is really a war chest for something else, since it isn’t being used to fund scholarships for kids of soldiers now.  If it has $15 million dollars, as they claim, then the interest alone should fund a free ride for all of the soldiers’ children currently in college.  What are they waiting for?  Likely, to convert the fund to something else, not what the donors intended.  Do you really think people who held bake sales and bought tickets to the concerts thought they were funding a Merrill Lynch account for a nebulous promise that some kids of fallen troops might go to college from it in 20 years?  No.  They thought they were funding kids to go to college on a full ride now.  But it was all a lie.

As I noted, Hannity said on his nationally-syndicated radio show that a $30,000 donation from Boca Java will fund a full year for one of these kids in college.  Sadly, it never did.  I don’t think anyone listening to his show thought that he meant 20 years from now.  That’s not what Boca Java thought, according to a company spokeswoman.

We’ve been at war since 2001, when we went into Afghanistan, and we’re winding down in Iraq. Unless Freedom Alliance wants you to believe that the soldiers who died there had no kids born before 1992–and clearly that’s not the case because Freedom Alliance has been giving a couple hundred kids a pittance for college since at least its tax filing in 2005, they are ripping these kids off in order to build a massive war chest and self-perpetuate. Again, with a giant multi-million dollar fund, why aren’t they giving the kids a free, complete ride to college? And how many kids of deceased troops will there be in the future? Enough to exhaust a multi-million dollar fund? Doubtful.

Moreover, because they hoarded millions of dollars, their returns show the fund shrunk by several million dollars with bad investments and market losses. That money could have put these kids through college for the entire time. What’s their excuse for the soldiers with no limbs and with severe burns? Are they waiting for two decades from now when technology is better? $165 for a soldier who is blind and his face blew up? No excuse for that. Their “response” is simply a non-response and an attempt to cover up the fraud.

Unfortunately for Freedom Alliance, I’ve discovered some interesting things that involve some other parties and more scamming here.  It’ll make you sick.  As a kid of a former wartime U.S. Army man, it makes me sick. They are using our severely wounded soldiers and the children of our war dead to help themselves and their cronies. And all the disinformation in the world won’t fool everyone. It’s an IQ test. If you believe the propaganda over their own tax forms, you failed. And you are essentially admitting they lied on their own taxes.

I will be posting more on this and on more fraud at Freedom Alliance, in the coming days. Stay tuned.




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103 Responses

@ Vicky: “Thanks for exposing what’s wrong, with the right.”

Huh? For one thing, he’s not really right wing; he’s just a thinly-veiled huckster who built a career pretending to be conservative because there were better job opportunities. Secondly, even if he was actually right-wing, one scumbag on the take does not define the entire ideological camp. The only exception to that rule is liberals, who by-and-large are soulless jackasses who plunder, lie and steal to build their personal wealth under the guise of “helping people.”

DS_ROCKS! on March 20, 2010 at 5:04 pm

Mike,
Whoosh,right over your head…
As Debbie expressly reported, Emily Zanotti is “the lunatic who has been stalking me for four years, who praised Muslim death, rape, and torture threats against me and my family, and who recently lost a scurrilous, unhinged attempt to threaten my free speech rights by trying to challenge my law license (which she did with the participation of a number of the bloggers now defending Freedom Alliance).”

“She also wrote deliberately false, defamatory information about me, which she admitted she made up and had to apologize for because she’d have lost a defamation suit.”

Get a clue dude

ebayer on March 20, 2010 at 5:34 pm

I’ll looking forward to what you post next week Debbie…don’t let them grind ya down.

Which I know you won’t.

I just want to know the truth, plain and simple as that.

Diamond Girl on March 20, 2010 at 6:17 pm

“This sight is now populated, it seems, by wacko’s and conspiracy theorists who are no better than the progressives on the other side of the debate and history for that matter, go join them, you’ll be welcome there, trust me. -fatman”

Trust you, fatman? Why would I do that? Certainly I don’t trust FA’s claimed “facts.” I do take seriously the specifics of tax forms, though. Those specifics are damning.

One of FA’s “facts” was a claimed $1000 limit on payments to soldiers. When I looked into this earlier today, I learned that this is simply a typical ethics rule related to soldiers on active duty. You know, the kind conflict-of-interest ethics rule that many of us have to sign. tony (and FA) want to pretend that this was why they gave such piddly sums to soldiers who were not on active duty. What sleaze! You have a triple amputee who gets, wowie zowie!, $200! Then there’s this mysterious “trust fund” that somehow just sits there with no guarantee that it will ever be disbursed for the benefit of those for whom it has been amassed. This is ridiculous!

And if, alas!, only $1000 could be disbursed (yeah, right!) why are Vannity and crew pretending that they would be disbursing much greater sums and collecting money on that basis?

Your boyfriend tony, who like you spouts the talking points, was even caught misstating the “mission” of FA, according to the official mission statement that he “helpfully” provided via a link to the FA web site!

I focused on these specifics just to show how dishonest you and your buddies are.

skzion on March 20, 2010 at 6:38 pm

So Hannity fronts for an inefficient charity. OK. There are a lot of Charities that run operating expenses that are pretty high. The Charity will lose it’s 501c 3 status if it’s too bad, and you can bet that the Obama IRS will be all over his ass if there’s even a shred of a chance to hang him. So now that you’ve done your “fair and balanced” duty, how about focusing your attention on the real problem. The real problem is what the Pelosi/Reed/Obama axis of Communism is doing right now, as they dig the heels of their facist jackboots into the tattered remains of our Constitution. Is there a chance to save Liberty, or is it time to Lock, Load and meet at Concord Bridge for a do-over. Where do you stand?

Mike on March 20, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    Mike, you say

    “So Hannity fronts for an inefficient charity. OK. There are a lot of Charities that run operating expenses that are pretty high. The Charity will lose it’s 501c 3 status if it’s too bad. . . So now that you’ve done your “fair and balanced” duty, how about focusing your attention on the real problem. The real problem is what the Pelosi/Reed/Obama axis of Communism is doing right now. . . .”

    I’m sure Debbie will have loads to say tomorrow regarding Vannity and healthcare, but I think you fail to understand the importance of this Vannity issue. As conservatives, we say that government should not be taking our money and giving it to those it deems “needy”; rather, this should be the role of private charities. When a very high-profile “conservative” perpetrates a charity fraud, he undermines the role of private charities. Not only will giving be less, but the practical purpose being served will not be served. This allows government in to address the need. And THAT means “communism.”

    There’s an even larger issue that you seem not to understand, Mike. “Conservatives” like Vannity are untrustworthy. They support the faux conservatives and RINOs that undermine conservatism and freedom from within. When Pelosi attacks us, this is dismissed by conservatives. But when Vannity and his ilk do this, the consequences are far more serious.

    Why, for example, do the high-profile “conservatives” pander to Islam, when this is obviously un-conservative? Why do such “conservatives” make sure that illegal immigrants flood our country when the overwhelming majority of voters of BOTH parties oppose this? I’ll tell you: there is collusion, whether or not it is formally organized (in the latter case, the collusion would take the form of “understandings”) that prevent the proper conflict of ideas that is central to a democratic republic. Vannity, Frum, and apparently Beck are part of this nasty agreement. You seem to think, Mike, that a healthcare vote is the Big Thing now. I disagree. We can reverse this in plenty of time SO LONG AS WE CAN UNCOVER AND REMOVE THE LIARS AND FRAUDS AMONG “CONSERVATIVES” AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

    Incidentally, Debbie takes on many issues besides Vannity. So, it’s not an either/or situation.

    skzion on March 20, 2010 at 8:49 pm

      JD ever go to highschool.

      skzion on March 21, 2010 at 11:50 am

    No Mike, that is the issue. Liberals used similar excuses to justify their support for ACORN.

    “The real problem is what the Pelosi/Reed/Obama axis of Communism is doing right now, as they dig the heels of their facist jackboots into the tattered remains of our Constitution. Is there a chance to save Liberty, or is it time to Lock, Load and meet at Concord Bridge for a do-over. Where do you stand?”

    I stand for honesty. Why should I be interested in a conservative version of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson?

    Worry01 on March 22, 2010 at 2:52 am

    You’re nothing but a foot soldier for Hannity. The real issue here is someone is taking advantage of our soldiers for monetary gain. Obvious Mike could care less about stopping scammers from using our soldiers. He’s more concerned about protecting Hannity’s reputation. Expect Hannity’s friends to appear on these posts to save-what’s left-of his credibility.

    Antoinette on March 22, 2010 at 5:35 pm

Hell even the Liberals are chiming in!

http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=7569

P.S. He’s calling this Free Market capitalism

KOAJaps on March 20, 2010 at 8:41 pm

Great job, you even made it on a big time liberal blog:

Hannity’s Freedom charity is ‘huge scam’: conservative blogger

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/conservative-columnist-hannity-charity-a-huge-scam/

Damn girl, what next Washington Post?

KOAJaps on March 20, 2010 at 8:50 pm

Okay, now I am starting to understand. The neocons are eating their own. Perhaps Erick Erickson isn’t neocon enough for this lady, and gawd only knows what Hannity did to piss em’ off, but please pass the popcorn. I had never heard of you before lady, and I am sorry I have now, one of these days you will begin to understand— The neoliberals want to bleed us dry to expand their welfare state, and the neocons want to bleed us dry to expand the warfare state. One of these days, y’all will realize that we cannot afford either of ya.
Yours is a four pronged attack as far as I can tell- 1)Freedom Alliance 2) Erick Erickson 3)Ron Paul 4)Rand Paul

I can’t wait to watch the blowback… Please pass the popcorn…
It is my opinion that Hannity is a criminal, and Erickson is a gate keeper, but your attacks on Ron and Rand Paul are unfounded and completely disgusting.

Not wanting to kill hundreds of thousands more in Iran is now deemed “Pro Iran” rather than ANTI WAR. Clever lady.. very clever indeed.

I also think you are a gatekeeper, and quite possibly a female “Hal Turner”
Cheers.

tully on March 20, 2010 at 10:39 pm

ron paul supporters are like a cult and they disgust me. they have no clue on foreign policy and think iran wants to be our friend. its really quite entertaining to hear how america is to blame for the worlds problems. oh i know let me say something gay as hell pass the popcorn. what a clown.

tyler on March 20, 2010 at 10:53 pm

Debbie, I don’t have the energy left to do what you do – but I’m glad someone’s doings it.

dorsano on March 21, 2010 at 1:50 am

A suggestion:
Publish the images of the tax return on your site. Most folks are probably too lazy to download the pdf.

That way arguments can focus on their actual reported numbers — facts of what they did — instead of engaging in superficial ad hominem attacks.

cheers

joseph on March 21, 2010 at 5:01 am

tyler, then I guess you still want the private Federal Reserve to run our money policy?! EXCUSE ME, BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT HR 1207 IS? It’s the bill sponsored by DOCTOR RON PAUL to expose this illegal unconstitutional fractional reserve bank for what it is…A FRAUD! Congress through the treasury is supposed to set the money policy, not some offshore bunch of corrupt banksters like the Rockfellers, Rothschilds and JP Morgan.

My suggestion is to get your hands on G. Edward Griffin’s The Creature from Jekyll Island, named for the GEORGIA locale where this takeover of our money took place (and I mean GA as in Atlanta). Or if you get Judge Andrew Napolitano’s new book Lies The Government Told, You check out Chapter 8 on the Federal Reserve.

Over 300 reps on both sides of the aisle want an audit of the Fed. My so-called rep Jim Himes doesn’t. THEN AGAIN HE WORKED FOR GOLDMAN SACHS, one of the many banskters wanting bailouts while their fat cat bosses get richer!

Since 1913 when the fed was formed the value of the US dollar has FALLEN 93%!!!!!

This country needs to get off of fiat paper money and back to the gold standard and the glass steagall act, which set banking policies needs to be brought back. It was globalist Bill Clinton who repealed this act in 1993, 60 YEARS AFTER ITS PASSAGE!

Bob Porrazzo on March 21, 2010 at 7:27 am

    You make a good point about the federal reserve. I’m all for abolishing it and there are many things I do agree with ron paul on thats not what I was talking about. What I’m talking about is how his supporters idolize him and it seems like a cult. His bill has over two hundred co sponsors why not idolize someone else who supports this bill. I often get called disgusting names by ron paul supporters because I defend Jim Demint and Mike Pence. I try and point out that ron paul isn’t the only good congressman and they just don’t like that. And when it comes to national defense I couldn’t disagree with ron paul more only on the issue of iran. In a way I like his isolationism ideas and I don’t believe in nation building but he laughs at people who suggest iran is a threat. Thanks for being polite in your response to me and sticking to points instead of name calling I can’t stand that crap.

    tyler on March 21, 2010 at 8:11 pm

JD @9:57
Can you direct me to a copy of Freedom Concerts records since 2003?

Frank on March 21, 2010 at 10:37 am

JD @ 9:57
I meant to write “financial” records. Also please direct me to copies of “Freedom Concerts” 990 Forms since 2003 (which are public records, in case you didn’t know. I can’t seem to find them anywhere even at irs.gov. so help me out!
Let’s put an end to all the badmouthing and getting back to “high-fiven” Hannity and North,ok?

Frank on March 21, 2010 at 10:43 am

    Frank,

    Why in God’s name should we high five hannity? Who made him Pope? What’d he ever do for us? Translation: If conservatives ever dare to ask questions, same kind of critical, clear thinking, reasonable, fair minded, balanced and neutral, the way we do of liberals, that alone automatically makes us traitors? Is that it?
    From your tone, I guess it does. We’re just supposed to lock-step in double time following blandly and blindly whatever leaders FOX news tells us too.
    The horse in Animal Farm had it right. “Napoloeon (The leader) is always right, I will work even harder now.”
    Following the leader ’cause he’s “one of us”.
    That’s called a useful idiot. Look in the mirror, Frank. Look in the mirror.

    Jimmy on March 21, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Emily, is that you?

skzion on March 21, 2010 at 11:49 am

Jimmy @ 1:54
You don’t know much about sarcasm or how to recogonize it, do you Jimmy?

Frank on March 21, 2010 at 2:10 pm

Vannity, Fraudkin and the rest of the FOX News clique are frauds. They all have this little cabal of power and everything must coincide with their little clique of people. Go to any city and every conservative radio station has the same group of talkers, Beck, Vannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Neil Boortz and whatever local host. The problem is they all have the same talking points. Many times I will agree with them but they all promote each others careers. It leads to the good ole boys network of covering for each other when things aren’t so right.

Having watched Debbie over the years, she is fiercely independent of others. The established clique of conservative groups have put a black out on Debbie. They know she is talented, read her blog but can’t publicly admit she is right because the clique is upset with her. Michelle Fraudkin will won’t even mention her name, “Unhinged smear-mongering spread on the Internet today”. WTF? What courage.

Oh well, they are too busy worrying about the money they are raking in to care about some little thing called integrity. Oh by the way they all have a book to pitch to you and each will take turns on each others show telling you how much you need to buy it. After a while their little profit driven enticements get a little stale.

Shine on Debbie.

CaliforniaScreaming on March 21, 2010 at 3:04 pm

I wondered why your link was missing from Big Hollywood. Keep up the good work.

Ann on March 21, 2010 at 4:40 pm

It’s always about money. Everything, end of story, period!!

john on March 21, 2010 at 5:08 pm

I am just watching, learning and wondering where this will all go.

Thanks for posting Debbie.

P. Aaron on March 21, 2010 at 6:48 pm

I have to correct you on two points. Erick Erickson is from (and part of the city council of) Macon, Georgia. Also, his RedState site was banning Ron Paul supporters as early as 2007. I don’t say this in defense of any person mentioned, only for sake of truth. I had a very abrupt falling-out with RedState, and I’ve stopped watching CNN over their hiring Erickson as a paid pundit, for the same reason why I offer the correction, because I care about truth.

JL: He openly endorsed the pro-Iran, anti-Gitmo, anti-American Rand Paul, said he’s gonna vote for him, and said in one bio that he lives in Kentucky. That’s where I got it from. DS

Jon Lester on March 21, 2010 at 7:11 pm

Thanks for bringing this sorry tale to my attention. Boy, there is no depravity that profiteers won’t descend to.

Robert of Ottawa on March 21, 2010 at 7:57 pm

BEST LINES, so far: “And all the disinformation in the world won’t fool everyone. It’s an IQ test. If you believe the propaganda over their own tax forms, you failed. And you are essentially admitting they lied on their own taxes.”

Hard to refute Debbie on that one!

BEST LIBERAL RESPONSE, so far, from The GTL™ (thanks, KOAJaps):
“Frankly, Debbie Schlussel has already done all of the homework for us — Hannity is a shameless scammer and far-right pitchman for one of the most shameless charities on the planet.”

Obama will direct the IRS to be all over this. Behind the scenes of course, or maybe directly. Discredit the man, discredit his message. Shame the whole Conservative block.

It will be interesting to see whether any Liberal media outlet will give Debbie a chance to break her hard-hitting story on TV.

Debbie IS FAIR.

If you’re a liberal, or a conservative, and you’re dirty… and Debbie sniffs it out… you’re going to get exposed.

The Canadien on March 21, 2010 at 11:12 pm

Great story but your math sucks. From the figures listed money given out is not a little over .036 cents on the dollar it’s 3.6 cents. Granted an unacceptable number but vastly different from .036 cents

John on March 22, 2010 at 12:20 am

I just learned that 2-3 years ago, the American Institute of Philanthropy gave Freedom Alliance an F. I’m not sure if Debbie allows links, but you can see here:

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/charity_reportcard_v3_071109.pdf

Lamont on March 22, 2010 at 9:46 am

This is all very interesting, but why don’t you talk about the Corporations that intimidate their employees to contribute to Charity. Do you know how many times around March the drive coordinators come to your office and browbeat you into a contribution. They also insinuate that you will have a bad review. I recorded the conversations – then they claimed that THEIR RIGHTS were violated. Typical Alinksy tactics – try to intimidate, and when that doesn’t work, then claim to be a victim. And 99% of the Corporate Charities support GAY PRIDE – talk about scams – but that is okay in the peanut brain of a liberal.

Now in the case of Hannity – it is totally voluntary, and at least some money is being disbursed. Charities have a problem – you always will have overhead and a lot of the money goes to salaries instead of the needy. That is why I don’t contribute to charities, I give to individuals in need. Of course I can’t claim a deduction but the definition of “charity” is to give without ANY expectation or HOPE of return. It is pure that way. I suspect 99% of liberals who do “charitable” work is to salve a bad conscience because liberals are essentially evil people.

Joel Weymouth on March 22, 2010 at 10:16 am

How dare you make these allegations against me, Ms. Schlussel. Don’t you know that I am a Great, Great, Great, Great, Great American?

Sean Vannity

Sean Vannity on March 22, 2010 at 10:50 am

Sean, this was much easier to pull off than Iran-Contra. What’s our next gig?

Col. North

Col. North on March 22, 2010 at 10:53 am

I just read this on Fraudkins website after seeing what she wrote about defending the Freedom Alliance. Fraudkin wrote “Since 2003, over $10 million has been raised for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund through the Freedom Concerts and generous donations from the Sean Hannity Show and its listeners. The Scholarship Fund is designated for the education of children of U.S. service members who have been killed or 100% permanently disabled in an operational mission or training accident”

Have things changed? Is her lie now that the scholarships are ONLY for the killed or 100% disabled veterans families? I thought they were supposed to hand out these scholarships to all the disabled vets. Vets that have both of their legs and one of their arms blown off are not necessarily discharged as being 100% disabled. Maybe Sean should be disabled by having his voice shut off on all the airwaves and cable TV.

Jarhead on March 22, 2010 at 11:32 am

Was this really the best time to go after Hannity? Just days before the coup d’etat known as health care reform.

Tempus Fugit on March 22, 2010 at 11:40 am

Hey Tempus Fugit,
What an asinine suggestion you ask, “was this really the best time to go after Hannity, with HC reform,”

Here’s my response, get a fricking clue, you enabling moron! Until we get these hypocritical phonies out the way, we are not going to be able to deal with anything–you want him another second as your mouthpice? Who should listen to us on anything? Get a clue.

Hang Hannity’s butt high–and all who commit such frauds.

BB on March 22, 2010 at 11:53 am

Why can’t one celebrate the death of a murderer of Jews? No wonder the world is as upset as it was when Haman met his unfortunate demise on the gallows. One is not supposed to be happy over an anti-Semite being sent to his grave. No matter what the Jews do – their true heroes are maligned and their opinion is found intolerable – even if that just happens to be a tongue-in-cheek supermarket ad!

NormanF on March 22, 2010 at 12:25 pm

Hannity refuses to say anything about Freedom Concert. You will have to take him to court in order to get the truth out of him, otherwise he won’t say a thing.

Antoinette on March 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

Where the hell has Michael Savage been on this? No mention of it at his website. You’d think he’d be pissed about this because he’s always talking about how much money he gives. Maybe he’s got some similar issues or something. Savage teams up with world net daily and there calling this a slander by debbie. I guess they all are the same. I’m really glad I decided months ago to stop listening to talk radio.

tyler on March 22, 2010 at 7:20 pm

Years ago there was a comment Hannity made, really, an unimportant comment, and I won’t repeat it because the set up takes too long, but I heard it and thought, “Wait a minute, this guy is an asshole.” Now, unlike Rahm Emmanuel, I don’t like to swear, but in that instant, over the radio, who Hannity really was became crystal clear to me. I am certain that you gather more enemies than friends, Debbie, but I have never found anything you have said – no matter how seemingly inflammatory – wrong.

gmartinz on March 22, 2010 at 11:30 pm

I’ve always thought Vannity was a talentless hack who was in it for the money. As an only son whose dad served in across the world fighting genocidal Marxists on to be spat on and called baby killer by the leftists whose mantra was human rights. It is ironic he fought against the Godless doctrines of Marx/Darwin/Malthus that was responsible for the death of hundreds of millions of “inferiors.” this story hits close to home for my myself and my family… thank you for doing the right thing and reporting the Story. thanks for posting links to the 990 PDFs.

INTERESTING note about the mentality of Marxists. At the University of Colorado I had a professor that read a stat about charity and volunteering. The city of Boulder is one of the most wealthy cities in the USA. They ranked #1 at the time for hours per person volunteering BUT the ranked last when it came to giving money to Charities. Boulder is Marxist, Progressive, and Godless. It proves that people who believe in God, mainly those of the Judeo-Christian Faith, give the most money to Charity and give time. Hannity should have pain for all his travel expenses out of his own pocket.

Born and raised in South Georgia I must say living in Boulder from 2000-2006 gave me an education and life lessons that no school could ever provide.

P.S sorry if there are misspellings and errors as my awesome doctors and awesome insurance company just saved my left arm and I am just now relearning how to type.

Thanks again Debbie as this story reminds me of how my family used to run our hometown newspaper… Old school journalism.

ConservativeWhoServived6ToursInBoulderColorado on March 23, 2010 at 12:32 am

Has anyone checked out the charitynavigator.org website and seen the rating given to the Freedom Alliance group. It looks like there rating of 4 stars is fairly good compared to other charities overall.

R: RIF–Reading Is Fundamental. We addressed this phony rating and how meaningless it is, in my column. The fact that you didn’t read it, before engaging in this premature articulation, tells us all we need to know. You can’t be bothered with the facts. Your sole role is as blind apologist for Sean Vannity and this scam of a “charity.” DS

Rory on March 23, 2010 at 12:12 pm

I read the article (and it broke my heart) and came to this blog for some insight. It appears fairly cut-and-dried that the charity does not live up to its promise. Sean is the face and deserves to take the fall but others are also involved. How culpable are the promoters, singers, entertainers and other volunteers when compared to the managers, administrators and policy makers? A more omportant question is, if the charity rating organizations are inept and unreliable, where does a busy but generous person go to get some guidance on how to help the troops and their families?

Alexander Tyler on March 23, 2010 at 2:21 pm

I have been disappointed by the other “conservative” blogs that have been disparaging Debbie, and not even wanting to hear her evidence, doesn’t sound very conservative to me.

Many of them are trying to say that she is just jealous. That tells me right away they have no idea who she is. What I know about her by reading her blogs is that, if the Freedom Concerts were truly doing what they say they are doing, even though she does not care for Hannity, should would have recognized this and given this point over to him.

I had hoped that Hannity’s Freedom Concerts were what he said they are, (I don’t listen to him or watch him, but many of my friends do and they like him)but if not, then at the very least Debbie’s reporting will make him more honest and if he truly did not know about it, well then, now he does.

Debbie is what our Founding Fathers would have liked in a reporter, somebody who reports. They thought it would be the reporters who would keep this country honest (not allowing politicians to run roughshod over it).

I agree with Worry01, I do not want to defend Hannity just because he is conservative, but neither do I agree with Debbie just because she is also. I do read Debbie on a constant basis and know she does not write without a reason.

Penelope27 on March 23, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    I’ve been trying to direct conservatives over to debbies blog. They call me a liar and say I’m a liberal. They just can’t grasp the fact that not all conservatives believe vannity or fox news for that matter. Its really pathetic how they don’t believe this story. Watching conservatives give a pass to conservatives because there conservative and they can make money with them is as perverted as it gets. I was over at tv by the numbers looking at hannitys ratings for monday oreilly had almost four million viewers and hannity had two point six. He lost almost half of his lead in. It was a huge day for all cable tv because of health care bill but hannitys audience wasn’t there. My screen name is fox news is a joke and I attributed hannitys low ratings to this scandal.

    tyler on March 23, 2010 at 11:08 pm

Debbie: “R: RIF–Reading Is Fundamental.”

What about the non-cash gifts like soldier’s care packages and other programs for soldiers and their families that are not cash grants, and such that make up a good portion of the program expenses listed in their 990s.

What about those items?

BA: Sadly, you believe Freedom Alliance’s lies. The millions for postage were spent on direct mail, not care packages. And let’s see the proof of how many care packages were sent. Islamic charities frequently use this excuse, too, as a ruse for wasted money. I’m sorry you take whatever Freedom Alliance now claims, at face value. I do not. Scrutiny, not blind faith, is needed here. DS

Bruce A on March 23, 2010 at 10:51 pm

If you have not already done so, please go to Debbie’s first post about this last Thursday and download the 990s and READ them. They will help you understand this story much better, imho. I don’t think FA is as bad as Debbie says, and they are not a great example either. Just think about cash and non-cash gifts and also please consider the difference between restricted and non-restricted funds. Think what you want about Sean, but please CONSIDER THE FACTS in this matter.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/comment-page-8/

Bruce A on March 23, 2010 at 11:03 pm

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